Transport Minister Barbara Creecy has appointed an interim RAF board and tasked it with addressing the complaints backlog. SAA’s new board was also announced.
Controversial suspended Road Accident Fund (RAF) CEO Collins Letsoalo is no longer employed by the fund, and an interim RAF board has been appointed. This follows the dissolution of the previous board due to its failure to act in the best interests of the RAF and to fulfil its fiduciary duties.
Minister of Transport Barbara Creecy on Friday confirmed this, as well as the fact that she had written to both President Cyril Ramaphosa and the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to ask that they expand the scope of the SIU’s investigation into the RAF.
Creecy said this follows whistleblower reports given to her and Deputy Minister of Transport Mkhuleko Hlengwa by Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) chairperson Songezo Zibi.
Letsoalo’s term of contract as RAF CEO expired last Wednesday and Creecy confirmed to Moneyweb “he’s gone”.
Letsoalo was suspended by the now dissolved RAF board in June this year, for alleged insubordination for refusing to attend a Scopa meeting and thereafter launched an unsuccessful urgent High Court application to overturn his suspension.
Hlengwa said the Department of Transport (DoT) had a contractual relationship with Letsoalo and “that contract has run its course”.
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He added what remains is for the SIU investigations into the RAF to proceed. It was up to the SIU to determine whether, in the course of the work they are doing, there are issues that Letsoalo needs to answer.
Hlengwa said the proclamation the SIU received from the Presidency goes up to 2021, but there are issues that have subsequently arisen out of that investigation that occured after 2021.
“We therefore need to expand the timeframe in which they can investigate.
“Its all the substantive issues that are there – the payments, the contingent liabilities, the issues around the panel of attorneys and the complaints.
“From a legal perspective, the SIU cannot investigate outside the proclamation and so it needs to be brought… up to date to give authority to the SIU to investigate,” he said.
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Interim board members
Hlengwa added that he and Creecy expect the new interim board to advertise the RAF CEO post, in earnest.
Creecy said Kenneth Brown, a current Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) board member, who previously spent almost 20 years at National Treasury, has been appointed chairperson of the RAF interim board.
Nonhlanhla Mabusela-Aikhuere is the vice chairperson. The other interim board members are Ntswaki Kutumela, Innocentia Mmule Pule, Richard Dyantyi, Mpontshane Alfred Mkhipheni, Alfredina (Ntina) Themba, and Neeshan Balton.
The interim board has been appointed for a period of six months, or until a new board is appointed, “whichever comes first”.
Creecy said they asked Cabinet to approve the appointment of an interim RAF board because it had become urgent and necessary to close the governance vacuum in the RAF leadership following the dissolution of the previous RAF board on 15 July 2025.
She said the interim board will provide strategic direction to the entity, enable it to deliver on its mandate, and also help ensure its financial and governance stability.
Creecy said she and Hlengwa met the interim board on Thursday night to share with them the RAF’s current governance challenges and to request that they address deficiencies in governance and control systems, including frequent occurrences of default judgments against the RAF.
“We stressed the interim board must initiate a process of filling executive positions that are critical to the mandate of the fund. We also stressed to them that they must cooperate with the current and future SIU investigations,” she said.
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Creecy’s priorities for the interim board
Creecy said apart from financial stability and governance, the interim board also needed to urgently ensure the RAF has a proper database of every one whose claims have not been settled. This would enable their complaints to be appropriately processed and the complainants “to have answers”.
“I don’t want to pretend that we may be able to pay out all claimants immediately…
“But I do feel very strongly that what we really haven’t managed to get is what I call ‘a queuing system with integrity’, so that you know where you are in the queue, where your complaint is, who is handling it and you have some reasonable hope that you are going to get a response, whether that response is positive or negative,” she said.
Creecy added the transport ministry has already established a panel of independent experts to advise the shareholder and the board on the views of RAF stakeholders on how to develop a sustainable RAF operational and governance model, and to review the RAF’s business processes and propose actionable recommendations.
“The department will continue to pursue all necessary measures to restore institutional stability and enhance the RAF’s capacity to fulfil its statutory obligations to the public by finalising the Road Accident Benefit Scheme Bill.
“What is essential to ensure that you have stability at the RAF is a bill that would introduce a ‘no fault system’ and would also introduce a defined schedule of benefits. We believe that is really important if we are to deal with issues of contingent liabilities that face the organisation [RAF],” she said.
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SAA board announced
Creecy on Friday also announced the members of the new South African Airways (SAA) board.
Chartered accountant and former SAA employee Sedzani Faith Mudau has been appointed board chairperson and Fathima Gany, who served on the SAA interim board that has just completed its term, deputy chairperson.
Other members of the new board are Dennis Dlomo, Pamela Bulelwa Yako, Bongiwe Pityi, Dr Salome Chiloane-Nwabueza, Dr Prittish Dala, Lisa Mangcu, Bongiwe Mbomvu, Siphumelele Dlungwane and Advocate Johannes Collen Weapond.
Creecy said this team has collective experience in aviation, air services and airport administration; business, logistics and commercial operations; governance and public policy, law, tourism, security; as well as financial administration and public accounts.
She said the new board will lead an entity that is currently focused on stabilising its operating model following a return to profitability two years ago and making a slight deficit this past year.
“We trust the new board will use the debt-free balance sheet and ring-fenced liquidity to ensure a fleet expansion plan that lifts the SAA capacity from 20 to 50-plus aircraft by 2030.
“To do this, the shareholder expects the new board to embark on a capital-raising programme, supported by internally generated cash, operating leases and market funding, that enables fleet modernisation without new sovereign guarantees,” she said.
Creecy further announced the appointment of chartered accountant Khulekelwe Glynnis Mbonambi as a non executive director to fill a vacancy on the Transnet board.
The DoT recently received a clean audit from the Auditor-General for the first time in 31 years.
Creecy attributed this to them being “strict”, while Hlenga jokingly added that he calls Creecy “the slave driver”.
This article was republished from Moneyweb. Read the original here.
